Grain markets yawned Thursday after the release of the latest supply and demand report from the USDA.
In the January report, the World Ag Outlook Board revised the 2016-2017 corn ending stocks by 35 million bushels, now sitting at 2.3 billion bushels, slightly higher than what the trade expected.
The USDA made no changes to domestic soybean stocks. The ending stocks forecast remains at 420 million bushels.
The wheat carryover was cut for the 2016-2017 marketing year by 47 million bushels. The carryover now sits under 1.2 billion bushels.
“Few changes were expected in USDA’s February supply and demand report, and for the most part, that is what happened,” said Brian Grete of Pro Farmer. “South America weather and how that South American crop finishes will be way more important as we approach spring.”
Grete said the decrease in corn acreage, increase in soybean acres, and the spring weather outlook will “outweigh anything that came out of the USDA reports.”
While the report isn’t generally known as a market mover, there are some good things to come from it.
“Overall, this is a positive situation,” Chris Hurt, an ag economist with Purdue University. “We have record usage and what that says is we’re now trimming our carryouts. It’s certainly headed in the right direction for stronger prices.”
